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Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

1340–1400 England

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant. Chaucer is most famous as the author of The Canterbury Tales.

England
Philosophers
Poets
Translators

Also known as: Chaucer, Chaucer, Geoffrey

Random Geoffrey Chaucer quote

78 quotes

Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be,
That may bothe werke wel and hastily.

He saugh a maydè walkinge him biforn,
Of whichè mayde anon, maugree hir heed,
By verray force he rafte hir maydenheed.

Now welcom somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders over-shake,
And driven awey the longe nightes blake!

For gold in phisik is a cordial;
Therefore he lovede gold in special.

It is not good a sleping hound to wake.

For out of olde feldes, as men seith,
Cometh al this newe corn fro yeer to yere;
And out of olde bokes, in good feith,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere.

For winning wolde I al his lust endure,
And make me a feyned appetyt;
And yet in bacon hadde I never delyt.

Thu hast translated the Romance of the Rose,
That is a heresy against my law,
And maketh wise folk from me withdraw.

The Legend of Good Women (1386)

And al above, depeinted in a tour,
Saugh I Conquest, sitting in greet honour,
With the sharpe swerd over his heed,
Hanginge by a subtil twines threed.

Of harmes two the less is for to chose.

And she was fayr as is the rose in May.

The Legend of Good Women (1387)

Hyt is not al golde that glareth.

But Cristes loore, and his Apostles twelve,
He taughte, but first he folowed it hymselfe.

Your yën two wol slee me sodenly,
I may the beautè of hem not sustene,
So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.

Nowher so besy a man as he ther was,
And yet he semed bisier than he was.

Of alle maner of minstrales,
And gestiours, that tellen tales
Bothe of weping and of game,
Of al that longeth unto Fame.

For of Fortune's sharpe adversite,
The worste kynde of infortune is this,
A man to hav bent in prosperite,
And it remembren whan it passed is.

Hard is his herte that loveth nought
In May.

Nature, the vicar of th' Almightie Lorde.

Ther n' is no werkman whatever he be,
That may both werken wel and hastily.
This wol be done at leisure parfitly.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Geoffrey Chaucer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.